Philippine maritime industry stakeholders are now seeking the intervention of President Rodrigo Duterte in salvaging the shaky state of the manning industry business from a clear upheaval, as they are now up in arms following the issued Department Order 211-A of the Labor Department mandating manning agencies to shoulder the board and lodging of their crew undergoing mandatory quarantine protocols for Covid 19 once repatriated in the Philippines.
DOLE’s Department Order states that “the Philippine Manning Agency or the ship owners they represent shall cover the board and lodging of their deployed seafarers during their quarantine period in accordance with Standard A4.2.1, paragraph 1 (a), of the Maritime Labor Convention, 2006.”
In their letter to Labor Sec. Silvestre Bello, the Joint Manning Group, Filipino Association of Mariners Employment Inc., composed of major manning enterprises, along with known maritime unions United Filipino Seafarers and Associated Marine Officers and Seafarers’ Union of the Philippines, vigorously object the said measure as it will translate to an estimated US$700 incremental cost per repatriated seafarer to their ranks, incurring the loss of respect of foreign ship owners to the Philippines.
“The local manning agencies and the Shipowners/Principals, with the strong support of the Seafarer’s Unions, hold the position that the Philippine Government, and not any private groups or sectors, should shoulder these costs, similar to what other countries are doing this time of unprecedented Covid 19 Pandemic,” the letter read.
The group aired that if the implementation of DO 211-A pushes through, foreign principals might be compelled to look for replacements for Filipino seafarers in other source countries such as Eastern Europe, Vietnam, Myanmar, Indonesia, India and China, where repatriation quarantine costs are charged to their government.
The group noted that the said order contradicts Section 19 of the POEA Standard Employment Contract, stating that “seafarer’s contract terminates upon the seafarer’s arrival at the point of hire (i.e. Philippine international seaport or airport) and not arrival at their place of domicile, and shipowners contractual obligation to pay for quarantine-related expenses is without any contractual basis.”
Furthermore, the consensus appeal stressed that DOLE has misapplied the Maritime Labor Convention (MLC) and misinterpreted the International Labor Convention, as the Standard A4.2/1 9 (a) of the MLC which states that “Shipowners liability only speaks of the obligation to cover cost for sickness and/or injury of seafarers occurring between date of commencing duty and the date upon which they are deemed duly repatriated,” and “it does not cover quarantine costs of asymptomatic seafarers after repatriation, or after the seafarer arrives at our international airport.”
The group maintained that local manning agents have already shelled out an estimated P2.8 billion for accommodation and quarantine expenses during the two-month enhanced community quarantine, noting that additional burden such as implementation of DOLE-DO 211 A will lead them to bankruptcy.
“To help the Filipino seafarers stay afloat, we appeal for your reconsideration and stop the implementation of DO 211-A. Furthermore, we reiterate our request for DOLE to allocate P6.52 B, and ask for supplemental budget from Congress, to cover the P2.8B reimbursement to the LMA’s and the estimated P3.72 B quarantine costs of repatriating seafarers for the next three months,” the letter added.
Abosta Shipmanagement Corp. President Capt. Jesse Morales said that two of his shipowners already informed him that they cannot shoulder the quarantine cost or returning crew because their obligation to the seafarers, as per their existing contract, is terminated upon the seafarer’s arrival to the point of hire.
He lamented that his enterprise has suffered major losses, as their seafarers were replaced by other nationalities when his company was not able to supply Filipino crew during the two-month ECQ when international flights were suspended.
Meanwhile, CF Sharp Crew Management Inc., a major provider of Filipino seamen to cruise ships, also stood firm versus DOLE’s order, saying that the government must pay the necessary costs.
“CF Sharp is standing against this directive along with the entire Philippine manning community. And at the heart of this matter, the Philippines cannot afford to play games with the shipowners by imposing additional costs outside the terms of employment. With the current state of global affairs, other nationalities are aggressively competing for these jobs, offering less expensive labor and easy to deal with the government. There is nothing obliging principals to continue to employ Filipinos. Are we willing to lose our industry? If we do, all the costs will eventually fall on the people and government at the end of the day,” CF Sharp President Miguel Angel Rocha said.
Cargo Safeway Inc. President, Capt. Rey Casareo, for his part, has called on OWWA to release the money contributed by the seafarers as OFW to pay for hotels, test and transportation to reach their homes and not for future benefits only.
UFS President Engr. Nelson Ramirez, meanwhile, said that “it is irresponsible to expect the private sector to pay for these expenses, given that the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration has a P7 billion trust fund, gathered from mandatory fees paid by all seafarers.”
He also wondered why OWWA and DOLE seems to give special treatment and biased to land-based workers in providing free quarantine costs, while seafarers are asked to pay for their facilities and are being segregated from other OFWs.
“It is clear in the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995, as Amended, that seafarers are clearly regarded as OFWs. How can they defy such law and mistreat them despite the billions of dollars they have remitting into the government coffers?” Ramirez said.
Trade Union Congress of the Philippines Partylist Representative Raymond Mendoza has supported the call to spare the agencies from shouldering the added burden, saying that the government should take on the costs of the quarantine before the discussion on who should pay causes these workers to lose their contracts, even if Filipino seafarers are the preferred workers in the industry.
“Our workers now have to compete with countries like Myanmar, Vietnam,
China, and those in Eastern Europe, and they are at an advantage because their governments are footing the bill for board and lodging.
They do not experience the same trouble of being stranded for 2 ½ months in their point of origin, and their governments are subsidizing the seafaring industries in order for it to survive,” Mendoza said.
More than 20,000 seafarers have already repatriated as of April, 2020 and more will be arriving in the coming days due to Covid 19 crisis.
